Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cognitive Processing And Climate Change: The Impact Of Political Ideology On Processing Climate Change Information, Quinn Massaroni

Master of Arts in Communication

This study addressed information processing for climate change messages from representatives of a political party. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the political ideology of a message source and message sender and its impact on perceived hazard characteristics, negative affective response, and information processing behavior. Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 posited that when the source and message receiver have the same political ideology, the receiver will experience heightened levels of concern about climate change. Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4 posited that, regardless of the message source, participants are more inclined to heuristically process information. Research …